The effect of child abuse and neglect prevention program on awareness levels and child abuse potential of pregnant women: A randomized controlled study

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the effect of the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Program (CANPP) based on Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) on the awareness levels and child abuse potential of pregnant women. Participants and setting: This randomized controlled study was conducted between July and December 2022 in a family health center of Aydin/Turkey with the participation a total of 30 pregnant women, who were then distributed into two groups as 15 experiment group and 15 control group pregnant women. Methods: The participants in the experiment group were applied SCT-based CANPP whereas no intervention was applied to the control group. Research data were collected before the intervention, one month after the inter-vention, and three months after the intervention using the Pregnant Data Collection Form, Child Neglect and Abuse Awareness Scale for Parents (CNAASP) and Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI). Chi-Square and Fisher exact tests, independent groups t-test and repeated measures ANOVA test were used in the statistical analysis of the research data. Results: The groups were homogeneously distributed in terms of the descriptive characteristics of pregnant women. Post-test and re-test total CNAASP scores of the experiment group increased significantly compared to the pre-test (p < 0.05), however no such difference was observed in the control group (p > 0.05). After the intervention, CNAASP total scores of the experiment group were found to be significantly higher compared to the control group. Furthermore, post-test and re-test CAPI scores of the experiment group increased significantly compared to pre-test (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The SCT-based CANPP has been shown to be effective in raising the awareness of pregnant women and reducing their child abuse potential. The application of SCT-based CANPP to pregnancy groups with a similar population can be used with the aim of increasing their awareness and reducing their potential for abuse.